Many merchants implement in-house financing (e.g., 90 days same as cash) by taking a series of checks from the customer, depositing the first check on the day of purchase, and holding the remaining checks until the agreed upon dates for further payments. When each agreed upon date arrives, the merchant deposits each check. There are several shortcomings to such a system. One such shortcoming is that if the checks are all dated the day of the original purchase, the checks deposited near the end of the term (e.g., the third month's check) may be “stale” and therefore refused by a bank. Another shortcoming is that it is a labor intensive process for the merchant to safeguard, identify and deposit the checks on the particular agreed-upon days.